


What Is All This Sweet Work Worth

by maebmad



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, all of the kisses, beholding tendencies used for romance purposes, canon atypical happiness, lets all try to experience joy again after the ordeal of 154
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-11-02 09:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20704688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maebmad/pseuds/maebmad
Summary: Here’s the thing: Jon is a researcher. His profession centers on him having too many questions about everything, and an inability to not chase the answers.





	What Is All This Sweet Work Worth

Here’s the thing: Jon is a researcher. His profession centers on him having too many questions about everything, and an inability to not chase the answers. 

Here’s the other thing: Jon is a _ good _ researcher. He’s irritating to the people around him, and once he’s focused on something the rest of the world doesn’t exist, and there aren’t enough hours in the day to learn everything he wants to so more often than not he uses all of his nights as well, and he’s persistent to the point of near pathological, but… at the end of the day, it means he’s thorough, right? He has his questions and he resolves them, and he can make note of his findings, and organize them into neat little categories, and move on to the next question to consume him.

Usually, it’s not a problem for him – or rather, it has caused a lot of problems for him before, but few to none that have really irked him beyond the fact that he must then apologize to whomever it was he upset, for whatever it was he did to upset them – but _ the point is _ that Jon is, most of the time, entirely fine with the cyclical nature of his attention, and the way his own curiosity directs him at its whims.

This, though… this is becoming a _ problem _.

Because he and Martin had spent the last two and a half weeks going on a series of dates that were balancing carefully between painfully awkward and the most incredible time Jon can remember having in a while. And, well, that’s not the problem, but it’s the context _ of _ the problem, because after the most recent one, Jon had kissed him. Just on the cheek, really, like it might have hardly counted, and Jon hadn’t really meant anything momentous by it, it was just something people _ did _ after they dated for a while, right? Martin had just made some joke that Jon can’t remember the punchline to, but he can remember laughing at harder than it probably warranted, and they’d gone to say goodnight, and Jon hadn’t even really thought about doing it, he just _ did _.

It was quick, and Martin’s cheek was warm and soft, and that was about the extent of it. Nice enough in its own way, if nothing exceptional. Except-

Jon pulled back to say goodnight, and Martin’s face was flushed. Martin’s face was flushed fairly often – he blushes when he bumps into people, and when he accidentally interrupts Jon when he’s reading a statement, and just about whenever anyone asks him a question, but- it’s _ different _ . That’s just- it’s just a little color to his cheeks, maybe the tip of his nose. It’s noticeable certainly, but it’s not- _ this _.

More exactly, really, Jon kissed Martin’s cheek, and his _ entire _face flushed, the color reaching down his neck and all the way to the tips of his ears. Jon watched the way the freckles scattered across his face unevenly stood out against it, and he was smiling that way that means he really wants to grin but is trying to be casual, and the effort shows off the dimple on his right cheek, and his eyes were practically sparkling as he looked at Jon with a little wonder and a lot of fondness. He said a breathy “Goodnight, Jon.” and turned to leave, lifting a careful hand to press fingers to the place where Jon’s lips had been just a few moments before.

For a few, long, lingering seconds, Jon’s mind is very distinctly blank. The moment he turns to make his own way home, though, his mind is very distinctly _ not blank _ . He holds the image of it in his mind, watching over and over as the blush took over Martin’s entire face, and more than anything Jon wants to know _ why _? He wants to know if it was the kiss, or if it was surprise, or it was the location, or-?

He wants to know if he can make it happen again. He wonders if he could make it happen by doing something else, he wonders if he tries, if there will be other Martin reactions he isn’t aware of that he’ll discover along the way.

To put it briefly, Jon has many, many questions. But, here’s the thing: Jon is also a very good researcher. 

The next week, instead of going out, they stay in and Martin cooks them dinner. Jon thanks him with another kiss on the cheek, and feels inordinately pleased with the result. Martin kisses him back, later in the evening. It’s also on the cheek. Martin does not blush after, likely because he was the one to do it, and could anticipate it, so unfortunately Jon can’t mentally file it away with the others, but…

Jon’s cheek isn’t as soft as Martin’s – it’s covered in worm scars and stubble that he forgot to shave, and just generally skin that he doesn’t necessarily put much effort into – but Martin’s lips are. They brush lightly, and Martin pulls back smiling, and the other side of Jon’s face is cupped in one of Martin’s hands. This kiss didn’t answer any of the questions that Jon has, but, frankly, he can’t bring himself to mind all that much.

Here’s where it become a problem, though. Because when Jon has _ questions _, the rest of the world disappears. He wants answers for them, and has spent most of his life shoving aside anything that stands in his way to getting them. He’s never really seen what’s wrong with this, but now Martin is bringing him a book from the library he’d asked for information on a statement, and-

And, listen, there is an entire statement in front of Jon, with an entire, possibly verifiable event that needs studying, cataloging, and filing away. It’s sitting right in front of him, on the desk, and _ yet, _ the thing he’s wondering right now is _ if he kissed Martin again right now, how would he react? _

If it was a cheek again, he might get flustered because ‘They’re at _ work, _Jon’ and might push Jon away, not aggressively, but firm, or he might just duck his head, not sure how to react, or he might-

And if it wasn’t on the cheek? If Jon kissed his nose? Or his forehead? Or lips?

He wants to chide himself, because they _ are _ at work, and he has things he needs to do, and also because he’s changing too many variables at once and that’s no way to conduct research. Some part of him really doesn’t care, and thinks about doing it anyways. Whatever the reaction would be, he could always try again at one of their flats later, or on a walk through the park – purely for cross-referencing purposes of course.

The next month or so proceeds in pretty much the same fashion. The kissing isn’t the only thing they do, of course. Not only would it be a very bad foundation for a relationship, but it would probably get very repetitive for Martin quickly, and Jon is beginning to find that more than any of his answers, he wants Martin to smile at him, and make bad jokes, and try to lecture him about the ecological importance of spiders. They go to a museum, and Jon explains the history of a lot of the pieces, while Martin knows more about what they actually _ mean _. They watch several documentaries about things that usually only one of them is excited about, but both inevitably end up intrigued with. They get into pointless debates about things that don’t matter, and more often than not, end up branching off and forgetting what the original topic was.

They also do more of the kissing. That is very notably there, too. Martin will turn his face into cheek kisses, trying to get Jon back immediately like they’re keeping score and he doesn’t want to fall behind. Forehead kisses, on the other hand, he likes to savor. He closes his eyes and just takes in the soft pressure of Jon’s lips on his brow, hand under his chin, and only opens them once Jon has pulled away. He wont say anything, though – just blinks up at him, smallest, softest little smile on his face, like he can’t believe Jon is really there. Nose kisses make him scrunch up his entire face, go cross-eyed as he follow’s Jon’s movements, and more often than not they end up with Jon laughing at his expression, and making note of it in the back of his mind, because it’s not something he wants to forget.

Sometimes they just kiss, mouths moving against each other, Jon’s hand in Martin’s curls, Martin’s hand cupping the back of Jon’s neck and pulling him closer, like he can’t stand the thought of a single millimeter of distance between them. More often than not, this ends with them just lying against each other, listening to the other breathe. More often than not, it ends with Jon listening to Martin’s heart beat in his chest, with Martin’s hands running through Jon’s hair this time, in slow, circular motions. 

For the most part, Jon gets his answers, but here’s the other problem: he’s picked something with infinite possible combinations. Once Jon knows how Martin reacts to being woken up with a kiss on the nose, he wants to know: what about the back of the neck? On his jaw? Does the time matter? Will he ever wake up to a kiss and not look like I’m the only thing in the world that matters to him? Will I ever kiss him and not feel the same?

Jon isn’t sure if he’ll ever have enough of them answered at once to satisfy him, or if it’ll just continue like this forever; every answer opening the door to a dozen new possibilities.

They’re on Jon’s sofa one night. There’s a new documentary on. Something about music, and the evolution of the brain, and pattern recognition. It’s something Jon wouldn’t have chosen, but he’s finding it fascinating enough, regardless. Martin is pressed against his back, and breathing softly and slowly enough that he must be dozing, which is making Jon want to elbow him a little. He _ had _ chosen this one, after all, he should try to stay awake to watch it.

Instead, he tries to reach the remote, where it has inexplicably ended up halfway across the sofa. He’s successful, but not entirely, because his reach for it must’ve ended up jostling Martin a bit, and now he’s stirring slightly.

“Mmm, wha’sit?” He mumbles near Jon’s ear, and he sounds so tired that it would’ve made Jon laugh if he didn’t think it would make it worse. Jon just turns the tv off, and the room goes nearly entirely dark without the glow of the screen.

“Shh, it’s okay, Martin.” He soothes nonsensically. “Just go back to sleep. Sorry for waking you.”

Jon can feel him settle back again, and Jon leans back against his chest, thinking that he might as well sleep, too, while he’s already here, and-

Martin drops a soft kiss to the corner of Jon’s jaw, made aimless and gentle in his half-sleep. He doesn’t even really pull away before he speaks, so the words “I love you,” are spoken directly against his neck, earnest and thoughtlessly thoughtful in that way that Jon has only ever really known Martin to be.

He feels warm in a way that has little to do with the thermostat set up to combat the London winter, or the blanket spread haphazardly over their legs. His chest is tight in a way that doesn’t make it any harder for him to breathe, but makes him feel like his lungs are pressing back against his ribcage.

He thinks Martin is already asleep again by the time he says it back, but the fact that his dark living room is the only witness to them doesn’t make it any less true.

Come morning, he thinks he’ll have a lot of new questions about these things waiting for him. For now though, he takes the hand of Martin’s that’s still laced through his own, places a gentle kiss against the knuckles, and – mind pleasantly, comfortably blank – falls asleep to the sound of Martin’s heartbeat.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _Love's Philosophy_ by Percy Bysshe Shelley
> 
> fic prompted by [agnesmontague](https://agnesmontague.tumblr.com/) on tumblr [here](https://soapoperayoucallanarchive.tumblr.com/post/187793294344/hahaha-so-this-got-way-out-of-hand-hope-you)
> 
> come find me on soapoperayoucallanarchive for tma posts or maebmad for my main on tumblr!!! Feel free to come prompt more things or yell at me about things


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